This may sound slightly similar to Gargoyles (we can’t fly, we can only glide) but actually it came from birds. Because Ry has bird-like wings, I considered how birds actually fly. They’re very light with hallow bones, and they have a very aerodynamic shape. In addition to that, each wing is the length of a bird’s entire body. This always struck me as interesting, as human proportions have both arms equal to height, so a bird’s wing is twice as long proportionally. Ry is not light or aerodynamic, so I gave him HUGE wings (You may have noticed that even folded, they go from his head to his feet.) but I felt that even so, he probably wouldn’t actually be capable of flying. I always justified it as the magic surrounding the guardian allows him to fly, but I could never justify it working when you add the weight of an entire other person. You may have noticed that he has never flown while carrying someone in the entire comic (in other words this wasn’t a recent thought) and the closest he came was jumping off a building with Katyn back here and that’s about what this is – just slowing the fall.
So if anyone harbored romantic thoughts of Ry flying majestically through the sky carrying someone…um…I’m sorry? XD
Man, that was a lot of explanation. I’m sorry. haha! I’m fairly happy with how it looks, though.
Thanks for reading, see you next week!
0.0 Ohmygoodness. SOMEONE WHO THINKS LIKE ME!!! *glomp*
I have never been able to justify wings like that in my mind, because I think EXACTLY THE SAME THING about them. The fact is that a person who had wings would have to be esp. light for a human, and the wings would need to be EXTREMELY large and powerful. I think there is even a guesstimate out there that a human would need wings 30 times their height to be able to fly, or something. So THANK YOU for being someone who also thinks logically about this, because it really bugs me sometimes when people blatantly ignore aerodynamics and physics in the area of wings. Especially the people who draw wings are these huge things that are attached to the person by about six inches of flesh. THIS WOULD NOT WORK. The wings either wouldn’t function or would be ripped off by their own weight, right? That one’s a particular pet peeve of mine.
My own personal avatar has wings, but even then I figure they would only be good for some light gliding combined w/ my mysterious Author powers. =D I’m just too logical to let these things go, lol!
Anyhoo, yes. That made me very happy. ^^ I’ve never found anyone else who was so openly logical about how wings work.
The trees look really good on this page, and I like how the girl’s (I forgot her name ^^;) hair is flying in the wind in panel 2. Nice job w/ the realism. =D And good job on the Twisted Mirrors page; the dialogue made me laugh.
Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas, Dragonsong! ^^
~Riverfox
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D.Rena Reply:
December 30th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Thanks! Yeah, it’s actually kind of a peeve of mine too. That’s also why Ry’s wings are so muscle-y, I’ve gotten comments both ways about that, but these things need to be strong, people! Some birds can use their wings as weapons they’re so strong! XD They aren’t delicate, frail things!
Or then there’s the people that draw the teeny weeny little wings that barely cover a person’s back. I’m not sure which is worse – when they try to make the case that those would actually function for flying (because…hahahahahaha!) or when they don’t function for anything at all (Then why’d you give ’em wings in the first place?! SHEESH!) Granted, there are birds that have wings and don’t really use them, like chickens, but if you’re going to stick them on something that wouldn’t normally have them, at least make it worthwhile.
I’m glad, though, I’ve always been very leery of showing Ry flying because even though I can easily explain it away in the context of the comic – he’s a guardian! – it never sat right with me. So I don’t do it often, he’s only actually flown about 3 or 4 times. I always worried that I’d come off as one of those ignorant people who never gave it a thought. I’m happy people seem kinda pleased with my thought process. 😀
And thanks about TM too! You know, that page was actually added in, I didn’t script it, I just felt that for the buildup, the skeletons ended up being a little anti-climactic, so I needed to punch up the danger a bit. I’m glad Jaith is so easy to write for! XD
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